GreatNorthernVK

But...the internet. You don't have to sell CDs to sell music anymore. It's a false equivalence in the age of gigabit internet.
 
In my opinion, blaming overseas fans for poor sales is a straw man argument. Plenty of non-visual indie acts from all over the world produce music on a dime and manage to sell it to anyone interested. In fact, most of these bands do the legwork with constant online promotion in order to get the word out, and promotion via word of mouth is free. We do it all the time on their behalf. We have YouTube, we have iTunes, we have SoundCloud, we have OTOTOY, we have Bandcamp, we have official home pages, and we have countless other services which provide instant international exposure for a minimal price. At what point does it transition from "music is expensive to make" to "fuck you foreigners, you don't get to hear these particular songs"? Because honestly, that's what this whole live-distributed music has transformed into from the perspective of someone who is never going to take a trip to Japan.
 
Also, there's a big, BIG difference between a live distributed release that functions as a preview and a live distributed release that functions as a present. One of them might end up on a future release available for international purchase. The other disappears into the sands of time. Limited live-distributed releases in particular are a form of ass cancer that needs to go terminal and die. That's intentionally spending money and limiting your exposure for no appreciable gain.
 
If you have money for wigs and photo shoots but not enough money to record music, you're doing the whole visual kei band thing wrong.

Yeah, Beyoncé isn’t “edgy”. She’s had to work harder than most pop stars, and she’s had a lot of important racial and gender commentary in recent years. But by definition, I have a hard time considering anything in the realm of Top 40 to be “edgy”.
 
 

They should just play Art of Life and be done with it.
 
http://jrock247.com/2018/04/x-japan-to-headline-coachellas-mojave-stage-with-hide-and-taiji-holograms/
 
Holograms, people. 

Hi, my name’s Katie. I’ve been listening to VK and some other J-rock bands since 2000, but I took a long break from searching up new bands and keeping up with discographies around 2011. I’ve recently been diving in again, and eager to catch up on the scene.
 
I had a pod-o-matic podcast a decade ago called J-rock North, and I was thinking of creating a YouTube channel to discuss bands. I was inspired by the MUCC discography review thread to take that similar concept across several bands. I’ve started cataloguing with the “A’s”, and it’s put me in a position to seriously re-evaluate some bands that I initially dismissed or never really followed.
 
I’ll be super swamped with working 70 hr weeks pretty soon, but I hope to release my first video sometime in June.
 
I’m also taking the plunge this year of attending my first J-rock live by flying to Toronto to see Miyavi.
 
Hope to have fun talking with everyone here.

So wait a minute, Sugizo & Miya are playing with Wes Borland at an X Japan set at Coachella?

I've been saying this all day, I feel ILL.

They should just play Art of Life and be done with it.
 
http://jrock247.com/2018/04/x-japan-to-headline-coachellas-mojave-stage-with-hide-and-taiji-holograms/
 
Holograms, people. 

They should just play Art of Life and be done with it.
 
http://jrock247.com/2018/04/x-japan-to-headline-coachellas-mojave-stage-with-hide-and-taiji-holograms/
 
Holograms, people. 

While fairness is a good concept and all, this is VK. If a fan is willing to pay big bucks to obtain the “best tickets”, which the reseller will turn around and spend their profits on more band merch, why can’t they?

Bean Sprout!
https://youtu.be/F143kJea2tw

Love collecting LPs. So far, I have
 
- Buck-Tick - Hurry Up Mode
- Buck-Tick - Sexual XXXX
- Buck-Tick - Seventh Heaven
- Buck- Tick - Romanesque
- Dir en Grey - Uroboros
- Dir en Grey - Dum Spiro Spero
- Gackt - Remix of Gackt
- hide - Hide your face
- hide - Psyence
- hide - Ja Zoo
- Kuroyume - Live at Shinjuku Loft
- L’arc en Ciel - Ectomorphed Works
- Malice Mizer - Sakai no chi to bara
- Miyavi - Firebird
- Moi Dix Mois - Lamentful Miss
- MUCC - Myakuhaku
- Nookicky - Pinhole
- Rouage - Mind
- Rouage - Soup
- Seikima II - End of the Century
- Shazna - Gold Sun and Silver Moon
- Sugizo- Replicant Prayer/Replicant Lucifer/Replicant Truth
- Thee Michelle Gun Elephant - Gear Blues
- X-Japan - Vanishing Vision
- X-Japan - Blue Blood
- X-Japan - Dahlia
- Zilch - BastardEyes
- Zoobombs - Welcome back Zoobombs
 

Being perfectly honest, choosing not to post the Gazette’s new album won’t affect much.
 
Gazette fans will still pre-order the thing, regardless of download status (unless they’re underage, or broke) People who don’t really care about the Gazette that much won’t have their buying habits altered by a temporary unavailability.
 
Bands that aren’t established *might* be able to sway overseas buying habits if they make an effort, and are willing to try ways to work with a diverse market (ex Vivarush).  But as a whole, the Japanese music industry is more antagonistic than helpful regarding non-Japanese fans. They’ve never counted on our sales. 

Being perfectly honest, choosing not to post the Gazette’s new album won’t affect much.
 
Gazette fans will still pre-order the thing, regardless of download status (unless they’re underage, or broke) People who don’t really care about the Gazette that much won’t have their buying habits altered by a temporary unavailability.
 
Bands that aren’t established *might* be able to sway overseas buying habits if they make an effort, and are willing to try ways to work with a diverse market (ex Vivarush).  But as a whole, the Japanese music industry is more antagonistic than helpful regarding non-Japanese fans. They’ve never counted on our sales. 

Love collecting LPs. So far, I have
 
- Buck-Tick - Hurry Up Mode
- Buck-Tick - Sexual XXXX
- Buck-Tick - Seventh Heaven
- Buck- Tick - Romanesque
- Dir en Grey - Uroboros
- Dir en Grey - Dum Spiro Spero
- Gackt - Remix of Gackt
- hide - Hide your face
- hide - Psyence
- hide - Ja Zoo
- Kuroyume - Live at Shinjuku Loft
- L’arc en Ciel - Ectomorphed Works
- Malice Mizer - Sakai no chi to bara
- Miyavi - Firebird
- Moi Dix Mois - Lamentful Miss
- MUCC - Myakuhaku
- Nookicky - Pinhole
- Rouage - Mind
- Rouage - Soup
- Seikima II - End of the Century
- Shazna - Gold Sun and Silver Moon
- Sugizo- Replicant Prayer/Replicant Lucifer/Replicant Truth
- Thee Michelle Gun Elephant - Gear Blues
- X-Japan - Vanishing Vision
- X-Japan - Blue Blood
- X-Japan - Dahlia
- Zilch - BastardEyes
- Zoobombs - Welcome back Zoobombs
 

I don’t understand the appeal behind novelty acts like Golden Bomber. Why even bother releasing physical music releases if the performers aren’t the original musicians? And why buy it (looking at you, Japan)? It kind of reminds me of that “California Raisins” tape that my parents bought for me when I was five.

My Rarez Hut auction haul:
 
- Hysteric Media Zone VA (2000)
- Spirytear demotape 
- Psycho le Cemu Genesis tape, Nagoya version
- MUCC End of the World Single
- Buck-Tick VHS PV collection 
 
and...
 
Miyavi’s Firebird LP from Discogs.
 
 

I miss when everything was just “Visual Kei”

Hi, my name’s Katie. I’ve been listening to VK and some other J-rock bands since 2000, but I took a long break from searching up new bands and keeping up with discographies around 2011. I’ve recently been diving in again, and eager to catch up on the scene.
 
I had a pod-o-matic podcast a decade ago called J-rock North, and I was thinking of creating a YouTube channel to discuss bands. I was inspired by the MUCC discography review thread to take that similar concept across several bands. I’ve started cataloguing with the “A’s”, and it’s put me in a position to seriously re-evaluate some bands that I initially dismissed or never really followed.
 
I’ll be super swamped with working 70 hr weeks pretty soon, but I hope to release my first video sometime in June.
 
I’m also taking the plunge this year of attending my first J-rock live by flying to Toronto to see Miyavi.
 
Hope to have fun talking with everyone here.

Hi, my name’s Katie. I’ve been listening to VK and some other J-rock bands since 2000, but I took a long break from searching up new bands and keeping up with discographies around 2011. I’ve recently been diving in again, and eager to catch up on the scene.
 
I had a pod-o-matic podcast a decade ago called J-rock North, and I was thinking of creating a YouTube channel to discuss bands. I was inspired by the MUCC discography review thread to take that similar concept across several bands. I’ve started cataloguing with the “A’s”, and it’s put me in a position to seriously re-evaluate some bands that I initially dismissed or never really followed.
 
I’ll be super swamped with working 70 hr weeks pretty soon, but I hope to release my first video sometime in June.
 
I’m also taking the plunge this year of attending my first J-rock live by flying to Toronto to see Miyavi.
 
Hope to have fun talking with everyone here.

The international fan base was built on piracy. The same is true for many Western music scenes as well.
 
For the longest time, exposure to alternative forms of music was limited to subculture participation (which had various barriers, including age, location, cultural background, gate keepers, etc).
 
Before the introduction of file sharing and social media, most people listened to what was put in front of them (radio, television, albums that they’re friends and family already owned). Major labels largely controlled what was put out to media channels (and still do, especially in Japan).
 
What file sharing did was give people (and young people in particular) a chance to discover music that they would have never had the opportunity to listen to before. Who can just blindly buy multiple releases in the punk/hardcore/metal/goth/international section of the CD shop? It’s not like the radio or MTV ever played those bands anyways.
 
It’s even more ridiculous to expect those young people to blindly buy Japanese releases for two to three times the price of a domestic CD.
 
The only artists that are feeling the pinch from file sharing are the ones who already benefit from heavy major label promotion. There’s no excuse for not knowing what those artists sound like, because they’re *everwhere*. Restaurants, the mall, the gym, every radio station, pop-up ads. Or more specifically, their *labels* are the ones feeling the pinch. 
 
TL;DR: Piracy increases exposure for bands that never would have been promoted by mainstream media channels, and can only increase revenues for alternative artists at the expense of the pop artists that those file sharers would have been listening to if not for the increased exposure of said alternative artists.

Hi, my name’s Katie. I’ve been listening to VK and some other J-rock bands since 2000, but I took a long break from searching up new bands and keeping up with discographies around 2011. I’ve recently been diving in again, and eager to catch up on the scene.
 
I had a pod-o-matic podcast a decade ago called J-rock North, and I was thinking of creating a YouTube channel to discuss bands. I was inspired by the MUCC discography review thread to take that similar concept across several bands. I’ve started cataloguing with the “A’s”, and it’s put me in a position to seriously re-evaluate some bands that I initially dismissed or never really followed.
 
I’ll be super swamped with working 70 hr weeks pretty soon, but I hope to release my first video sometime in June.
 
I’m also taking the plunge this year of attending my first J-rock live by flying to Toronto to see Miyavi.
 
Hope to have fun talking with everyone here.